When Virgin Trains arranged to have some Class 47 locos
rebuilt with
General Motors engines as Class 57/3, it was envisaged that they would
be used principally for rescuing failed trains, and for hauling Class
390 'Pendolino' electric trains over non-electrified sections during
diversions for engineering work. Class 221 Voyager diesels were to have
covered all the Holyhead - London workings; four of these had been
built as four-car sets rather than five-car for this purpose and
allocated to the Virgin West Coast franchise, all other 221s being
Virgin CrossCountry stock.

It had become a railway tradition to refer to locos
stationed around
the network for rescue purposes 'Thunderbirds' after the famous TV
show, and Virgin took this one step further by arranging for the 57/3s
to be named for characters in the series. Cleverly, the first five have
the final digit of their numbers the same as the relevant character's
transport in the stories. 57 301
is Scott Tracy, who piloted
Thunderbird 1, etc. 57 307Lady Penelope has pink-backed
nameplates to match the colour of the lady's Rolls-Royce. Our picture
shows 57 311Tin Tin fresh out of the Brush
works at Loughborough.

In Summer 2003, during the process of creation of the
57/3s, a change
of plan occurred; legend has it that this was brought about by the
desire of North Wales MPs for a full breakfast service when travelling
to London, something that the small Class 221 galley could not offer.
Two weekday return workings to London would therefore be Pendolinos,
hauled by Class 57/3s between Holyhead and Crewe. The original order
for locos was increased from 12 to 16, and the fitting of a 'Dellner'
automatic coupler to the locos was hastily designed, so that the
coupling and uncoupling at Crewe could be done more quickly than by
using the 390's emergency screw-coupling as had originally been
envisaged for 'dragging' and diversion work.

After 12 locos, there were no Thunderbirds characters left
to use for
names, so places and things from the show were resorted to for the
final four.

By January 2004 we were reporting that the couplers were in process of
fitting, and work was under way to modify the exhaust system of the
locos to prevent diesel fumes entering the 390's air-conditioning. At
one time it was thought that the 57/3 might have to push the train, but
eventually this was resolved. Then the whole plan nearly
foundered as it was discovered that a Pendolino, with its pantograph in
the lowered position, was too high for the 'structure gauge' in North
Wales, and Network Rail had to do some work to allow them to run. But
after all these problems were overcome, Pendolino service did
begin in Spring 2005. The weekday turns were, at various times,
supplemented by summer weekend operations to release Class 221s to
relieve overcrowding elsewhere in Britain. The two weekday trains, and
some weekend workings, continued as Pendolinos
until the December 2008 timetable change, after which only a single
Saturday-only Pendolino return working remained. This was suspended for
a while, but from May 2009 began running again, to maintain staff
familairity with the procedure.

By 2008 Virgin Trains had found that they had too
many locos for their
requirements, even though they were already hiring them out for use on
timber trains to Chirk. Arriva Trains Wales were being asked by the
Welsh Assembly Government to provide a loco-hauled express from North
Wales to Cardiff, and Virgin Trains successfully bid to supply the
locos, to be driven by ATW drivers, who were given a referesher course,
as ATW had used the 'Thunderbirds' for a while a couple of years before.

The last four locos, 313 - 316 were chosen, perhaps
because their
'vehicle' names (Tracy Island,
Firefly, The Mole, FAB 1) not match the
'character' names of the other twelve. 57
314
and 57 315 were
de-named and re-liveried in a new version of Arriva Trains Wales
colours
for use on the
Monday - Friday express from Holyhead to Cardiff and return,
which commenced on
15 December 2008. 57 313 and 57 316 appeared shortly afterwards,
de-named, in a so-called 'neutral' livery - the same blue
but minus the lighter parts, and the
logos - and are supposedly used 'when the branded locos are
unavailable' (although in practice they appeared just as often as
the branded ones). The Arriva service was taken over by DB Schenker
Class 67s from the evening working of 26 March 2012.

In 2010 57s were replaced by Colas Rail Class 66s on
timber
traffic to Chirk; from December 2009 on they could
be seen on First Great Western loco-hauled trains in
south-west England, but were soon removed from this duty due to
unreliability.

In August 2011, six of the locos were given up by Virgin for further
use by Network Rail, and were repainted in NR's all-yellow livery.
Changes were made to their couplers to allow them to haul various
types of electric railcars used in the south-east. The nameplates were
removed for sale in a
charity auction. In March 2012 three more locos were de-branded,
this time for transfer to DRS, and received DRS blue livery. In 2014,
Network Rail decided to give up its locos, and all six have passed to
DRS and gained its livery.

As for the four Arriva blue ones 313 -
316, at the start of 2013 they were sold to charter train operator West
Coast Railway Company and when repainted have appeared in maroon
livery; they make
occasional forays to North Wales on excursions.

Farewell to North Wales

At the December 2012 timetable change, marking the end of Virgin's
franchse term (although an abnormal extension was awarded to the
company following much-publicised fisaco relating to the award of the
next franchise) the story of Class 57s and Pendolinos come to an
end as far as the normal working of the North Wales line is concerned.

It was planned to replace the solitary Saturday train with a pair of
Class 221 Voyagers after the workings of 8 December, but in view of a
series of problems in previous weeks, culminating in a failure to
establish a control connection between loco and train on 1 December
resulting in passengers being transferred to a Voyager at Crewe, it was
decided to begin Voyager service a week early on 8 December, to the
dismay of railfans who had hoped for a last ride.

The three 57/3 locos which remained allocated to Virgin and in their
livery (307, 308, 311)
transferred to the DRS fleet,
and ceased to be the maintenance responsibilty of Alstom's Manchester
Longsight depot. All are expected to receive DRS livery. By 7
December it was reported that 57 307 had already been sent to Eastleigh
Works. Interestingly when it emerged in DRS blue livery the pink
'Lady Penelope' nameplates were retained - a nice gesture by DRS. In
spring 2013 57 311 was re-named simply as 'Thunderbird' with a standard
style nameplate.

In future provide the Class 57/3 locomotives for 'rescue' duty are
hired by Virgin from DRS, although staffed by Virgin drivers, and will
normally be located at Euston,
Rugby, Crewe, Preston and Carlisle stations.

DRS locos are also likely to appear from time to time on passenger
charter trains in North Wales and elsewhere.

* 390 033 was severely damaged in the Greyrigg
derailment on 23 February 2007, and will not re-enter service.

+ Alstom livery variant. was re-liveries named 'X-Man: dad of
future past' in 2014 but this may be temporary.

390 155 was named 'Rugeley Town' but this has been replaced by
Matthew Flinders, which might seem more appropriate to a 'Voyager' unit.

% 11-car unit

Note: renamings of 390s, usually the 'Virgin ...'
examples, are common: 390 047 carries the name of the charity currently
being supported by Virgin.

Pendolino

The Class 390 Pendolinos had a rather chequered early
career, being
delivered late by Alstom, and turning out to be the last trains built
at the old Metro-Cammell factory in Birmingham before it was closed
down by its multinational parent. There were originally 8-car sets,
then a ninth car was built and added to each set.

On 23 February 2007 390 033 was involved in a derailment on faulty
points at Grayrigg in Cumbria. Several coaches fell down an embankment,
and although only one passenger died, the damage to the train was such
that it was decided not to repair it.

Orders were placed by the Department for Transport in 2008 to
build our new sets will be built with 11 cars each, and plus new
vehicles to enable 31 of the existing fleet to be lengthened to 11-car
format. These are being built in Italy; the first 11-car set, 390
054, was delivered in 2011, and temporarily reduced to 9 cars for
operation by Virgin Trains, although the new trains are intended for
use by whoever wins the West Coast Mail Line franchise when it is
re-let in 2012. By late 2012 all four new sets were running in 11-car
formation, and the 31 others had also had the extra two cars
incorporated.

The original naming theme of the Pendolinos was a mixture
of cities
served by Virgin - featuring the crest of the city - and 'Virgin' names
inspired by - but not all copied from - the old Class 52 'Western'
class diesel-hydraulic locos, which were apparently a favourite of
Richard Bowker, the head of Virgin Trains at the time. Over the years
several have been re-named to celebrate various events.